Project snapshot
• My role:
Behavioral Product and Service Designer
• Team:
UX Researchers, Product Designers, CRO, APIs, Contact Center, Operations, Fraud & Security, Compliance, Legal, Consumer Finance, SEO, Design System, Marketing, Business, Data & Tech
• Timeline:
Jan 2023 - Jul 2025
• Platforms:
Web & Mobile
• Tools:
Figma, Miro, Google Analytics, Maze, Quantum Metrics, Adobe Target, Adobe Analytics, Jira, CMS BBVA
Context
In 2023, BBVA AutoMarket emerged as a joint initiative between BBVA’s Auto Business unit and Accenture, aiming to formalize Mexico’s highly informal used car market, where over 85% of transactions occur P2P without financial protection, legal guarantees, or trust in the process. The MVP launched in October 2024 to offer a secure, user-centric platform that integrates e-commerce, financing, and both digital and physical touchpoints to support end-to-end vehicle transactions.
The business goals were to position BBVA as a category leader in used car marketplaces, increase credit adoption, and offer a differentiated, trustworthy alternative to dominant players like Kavak or Mercado Libre.
I contributed to product evolution through experimentation, behavioral strategy, and UX optimization. I worked alongside over 15 interdisciplinary teams, including UX, APIs, CRO, BPO, Legal, SEO, Consumer Finance, and Marketing, to translate user needs into design hypotheses, eliminate friction, and improve platform adoption across both buyer and seller journeys.
The challenge
After the MVP launch, BBVA AutoMarket’s open market rollout exposed new frictions as the platform scaled. Seller drop-offs emerged early in the publication flow, with funnel data showing unclear steps, lengthy processes, and low perceived value—especially when listings were rejected or sellers didn’t understand next steps. With inventory volume struggling to reach the 1,000–2,000 vehicle threshold needed for platform competitiveness, insufficient supply also limited buyer conversion.
In parallel, business goals aimed to position financing as the preferred payment. However, research uncovered behavioral barriers: confusion around financing terms, debt aversion, and status quo bias led users to default to familiar competitors. We needed to reduce psychological friction, accelerate decision-making, and design an end-to-end journey that balanced user control and trust with the bank’s strategic objectives while removing the drag of a traditional process.
How might we...
Research & Discovery
To deeply understand the used car market in Mexico and design a solution grounded in real user needs, we conducted a mixed-method research plan combining primary and secondary sources.
We started with a quantitative study of 2,000 participants (1,000 buyers and 1,000 sellers), representative of the Mexican population engaging in used car transactions over $150,000 MXN. This allowed us to size and segment the opportunity space using validated typologies and demographic filters.
At the same time, we carried out 15 in-depth qualitative interviews with both buyers and sellers. These sessions informed our understanding of cognitive processes, emotional drivers, and decision-making pain points. We synthesized findings into 5 buyer and 5 seller personas, each with distinct priorities in transparency, trust, and control. These insights were further validated through 4 co-creation and testing workshops with end users.
We complemented this with benchmarking and mystery shopper exercises, which gave us direct comparison points against key competitors. We ran naming workshops to ensure the brand would resonate. We also mapped the end-to-end journey for both buyers and sellers, identifying friction points across digital and physical touchpoints.
Additionally, we ran behavioral audits, journey gap analysis, and friction mapping to translate behavioral signals into design interventions. Our toolkit included A/B testing, conjoint studies for value perception, heatmaps, and shadowing in the field. This research foundation allowed us to define a clear value proposition and prioritize opportunities throughout the platform.
Strategy & Ideation
To translate research into strategy, we began by outlining mental models and identifying behavioral drop-offs across the end-to-end experience for both buyers and sellers. This foundation helped structure the information architecture and user flows with clarity and intention, especially in the key conversion moments.
We redesigned the seller onboarding with two tailored paths, OTP-first and photo-first, to address distinct motivation patterns and reduce drop-offs. The credit request flow was also simplified, using clearer language and behavioral nudges to boost user reassurance.
Beyond the digital product, we co-created a physical service playbook and customer interaction model for our in-person locations where users completed their transactions, onsite locations where users complete transactions. This included defining the ideal user flow, key messaging touchpoints, and behavioral nudges for advisors to support a smooth and trustworthy face-to-face experience.
Throughout this phase, we used sketching, blueprinting, and iterative wireflows. Our collaboration with cross-disciplinary teams ensured each design decision connected with user motivation, operational feasibility, and business goals.
Design & Execution
We designed and iterated on multiple wireframes, ranging from low-fidelity for early alignment to high-fidelity flows for key journeys like the seller onboarding, vehicle listing, credit application, and buyer quiz results. Each screen was carefully crafted to reduce cognitive load, provide decision-making clarity, and highlight key information for different user profiles.
Visual design decisions were informed by BBVA’s design system but adapted to fit the emotional and functional context of AutoMarket: we prioritized hierarchy, readability, and contrast, and added subtle microinteractions to reinforce a sense of control and progress. For example, we used progressive disclosure to guide sellers through the publication process, and used real-time validation messages to reduce drop-offs.
Accessibility guided the entire design system, ensuring WCAG standards, readable UI, and clear feedback. We prototyped and validated key transitions, enabling scalable testing across web and mobile flows before launch.
Testing & Iteration
We applied a multi-method approach to testing, combining moderated usability tests, live A/B experiments, and panel research to continuously improve the platform. One of the most impactful pieces of research was a custom panel designed to understand the mental models and perceptions around auto financing for used cars.
The panel revealed strong cognitive barriers such as low awareness of financing as an option for second hand cars, misconceptions about eligibility, and a tendency to rely on cash due to past negative experiences. These insights informed the behavioral messaging strategy later tested via A/B in product and marketing campaigns.
We ran usability tests across mid- and high-fidelity prototypes to detect seller journey frictions, addressing unclear steps, terminology, and CTA messaging. Through Adobe Target experiments and heatmaps, we validated small copy and framing shifts, like reframing financing as "getting your car faster", that drove significant uplifts in clickthrough.
Iterative design reviews leveraged before-and-after comparisons to align stakeholders, clarify decisions, and reduce ambiguity in design tradeoffs.
Outcomes & Impact
The behavioral and UX interventions applied across the project delivered meaningful business and user outcomes during its growth phase:
Final Product
Learnings
Working on sensitive topics like privacy and PII management challenged me to translate highly emotional user concerns into structured behavioral frameworks that could inform both product and legal decisions. This experience reinforced the importance of mapping not only adoption intent but also the underlying mental models users hold about control, safety, and transparency, especially when dealing with trust-critical experiences.
